Everything up in the air over Ontario airport

I drove up to Ontario on Wednesday to pick up my daughter, who was flying in from Denver for a five-day visit. And along the way I couldn’t help but wonder how many more times I’d be making this trip.

It’s not because after next week my daughter will no longer want to see her old man. She will keep finding excuses to come. I also haven’t been abandoned by other family and friends in other distant locales.

What bothers me is that I’m not sure about the future of Ontario International Airport. It is facing all sorts of financial problems that lead me to believe that someday soon it may be forced to throw in the towel.

And who knows what would follow? An international trade mart, perhaps? An indoor skateboard park? What a crying shame that would be.

I have an extreme fondness for Ontario International. To me, it’s everything an airport should be ---- including fast and convenient. The only complaint I have is that sometimes those benches get a little hard while you’re waiting for a long-term parking lot bus to retrieve you. Otherwise, it’s the best airport around. And from Temecula it takes exactly the same amount of time ---- one hour ---- to drive there as it does to drive to Lindbergh Field in San Diego. That’s why I recommend it to all my visitors.

But under the leadership of Los Angeles World Airports, airport statistics indicate Ontario’s number of flights have fallen more than 50 percent, while passenger counts have fallen by by more than one-third since 2006. Economists say that equates to a half-billion dollars lost, along with several thousand jobs.

Ontario city officials contend the solution to all this is to allow the city to take over complete control of the airport. In 2011, they even offered $250 million to tear up its agreement with LAWA. The agency has since come back with a counter price of $457 million.

A legal claim against LAWA was filed last month. The agency last week offered a plan to increase traffic, but the city says it’s not enough and still wants ownership.

LAWA argues the reason for the decline is the weak economy. Virtually all mid-size airports have had problems in recent years, according to an article last week in The Los Angeles Times, and Ontario’s are among the worst.

But to show how heated this issue has become, normally mild-mannered John Husing, a Redlands-based economist whose expertise is the Inland Empire, said at a recent public meeting that “LAWA can go to hell.” The problem, he contends, is not the economy, it’s LAWA’s leadership.

Giving Ontario control of its airport seems a noble idea, but it’s a risky gamble. What happens if airline prices are high and ridership is low? Would Ontario eventually have to go to other public agencies in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, seeking financial help for its “regional airport?”

Last year, Ontario sought moral support for the takeover from cities in Southwest County and got it from all but Lake Elsinore. If money is on the line sometime in the future, support might be harder to come by.

Ontario International is important to the inland economy and environment. Husing said in an interview that it boosts local businesses who may want to locate here and allows for global connections.

And if that great little airport finally is strangled into submission and lost, it’s been estimated that more than 1 million additional car trips o Los Angeles International will be generated annually. We in the south will point our headlights toward Lindbergh Field, thus generating more traffic on San Diego’s roads as well.

Riverside deserves an efficient, fast airport convenient to the majority of its population. Ontario fits that bill.